Staff of Washington Submit Thursday launched a one-day strike over contract negotiations.
Washington:
A whole lot of workers at The Washington Submit, one in all America’s most storied newspapers, walked off the job Thursday in a 24-hour strike after 18 months of contract negotiations didn’t safe a deal.
Chanting “Honest pay now” and elevating indicators studying “Present us the $$$$,” workers and supporters protested exterior the paper’s downtown Washington workplaces because the Submit Guild estimated 750 individuals can be partaking within the work stoppage.
The strike comes amid a tumultuous US media panorama, which has not spared the nationwide each day, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — one of many world’s richest males, whose e-commerce large has aggressively pushed again in opposition to unionization efforts there.
The media business noticed some 17,500 job cuts within the first half of 2023 alone, in accordance with Challenger, Grey and Christmas, a human assets consultancy. Over the previous twenty years, because the web has eaten into conventional promoting income, some 2,500 newspapers have shuttered altogether.
On the similar time, shops like The New York Occasions — a Submit competitor — have prospered, with the Occasions not too long ago hitting 10 million subscribers because it expanded into providing cooking recipes and video games, in addition to buying sports activities outlet The Athletic.
The Submit strike comes after failed talks to succeed in a brand new deal over pay, distant work and different circumstances. Layoffs final yr in addition to hiring freezes are additionally affecting work circumstances and morale, stated Katie Mettler, a neighborhood reporter and union co-chair.
The Occasions reported earlier this yr that the Submit was on monitor to lose about $100 million this yr, which the union has blamed on poor administration.
“The corporate has tried to stability its books by shedding practically 40 individuals within the final yr,” the union stated in a letter asserting the strike. Some 240 voluntary buyouts had been provided this fall, and the paper “has threatened that if they do not get sufficient individuals to go away, extra layoffs might be subsequent.”
“We’re not asking for charity,” Mettler informed AFP, including that “we won’t change into worthwhile once more if our staff go away… as a result of this establishment is not paying us wages that sustain with inflation.”
– Strikes throughout US –
An organization spokesperson stated the paper’s aim “stays the identical because it has from the beginning of our negotiations: to succeed in an settlement with the Guild that meets the wants of our staff and the wants of our enterprise.”
Media experiences point out that since reaching a excessive of three million subscribers throughout the frenzied years of Donald Trump’s presidency, Submit subscriptions have since dropped to 2.5 million.
The Submit Guild has additionally accused the corporate of “refusing to cut price in good religion” and “breaking the regulation.”
“It is irritating to have labored for 18 months for a contract and to nonetheless not have one,” putting reporter Jeanne Whalen informed AFP.
The strike comes at a second of resurgent US union exercise and amid a good labor market — with everybody from Hollywood writers and actors to auto staff to baristas taking their grievances to the picket line in latest months.
The labor motion on the Submit follows a strike earlier this yr at America’s largest newspaper writer, Gannett, and a 24-hour motion by New York Occasions workers a yr in the past.
Employees at The Related Press staged a “brief break” final month over their lack of contract. Their guild has rejected a two % increase provided by administration.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)